When Ann Connelly Fine Art made the move last spring from Southdowns to a bigger space off Jefferson Highway, the new digs allowed room to breathe for the rotating inventory of more than 1,000 pieces of art.
It also gave visitors more room to breathe as well.
“It can feel very intimidating to walk into an environment like this that you’re not necessarily familiar with. There’s a little bit of a learning curve,” says Assistant Director Chelsea Norris. “And not being able to just look on your own is what I felt our last space lacked. Of course, we’re here to guide people and help them, but sometimes it’s fun to just peruse through by yourself and be as on your own as you want to be.”
For nearly 30 years, the gallery has collected works from local, national and international artists and filled the walls of places like the Watermark Hotel downtown and local hospitals while also helping individual clients add fine art to their homes.
The move to the new space, which owner Ann Connelly dubbed Studio Park, gave the team more room for exhibitions and events, and allows for a massive library wall of cubby holes so visitors can browse the inventory of paintings, works on paper, lithographs, photographs and more.
Norris and Connelly say they want people to come in at their leisure to find something that meshes with their personal style. But they also want to show younger Baton Rougeans that it’s possible to start an art collection on a budget.
While many of us might be used to strolling through outdoor art markets or smaller galleries, the experience at a commercial fine art gallery is a little different. Norris shares some tips:
Know the price range
Smaller pieces and works on paper from respected professional artists can cost from a couple hundred dollars to a little over $1,000. The mid range is around $3,000-$6,000 for a larger canvas piece.
Don’t know where to start, or just want to dip your toes in? “You can start with something small that’s still a showstopper and then collect other things in between,” Norris says.
Consider nontraditional pieces
One way to avoid breaking the bank but still put something cool on the wall is to look for pieces a bit removed from traditional works of art. Norris showed us a hand-printed cover Henri Matisse did for the Parisian art magazine Verve in the mid-1900s. While the lithograph doesn’t have a huge value, it still has the colorful and recognizable mark of the French master. Beautifully framed, it’s ready for a wall.
Another piece she shared was basically a large collaborative doodle on paper by several fine artists participating in a warm-up exercise at a studio workshop. “So this is another way to get something that’s coming from an amazing artist studio, but it doesn’t necessarily have one artist’s signature.”
Think about a salon wall
Plan to arrange purchased art with things you’ve inherited or items you’ve found while traveling. “We love that idea of a salon wall telling a collected story. And then you’re layering it in with photography and sculpture and mixed media. That’s what at the end of the day makes a collection look luxe. Not everything needs to be expensive; it just needs to be thoughtful.”
Learn about related artists
Love a particular artist who’s out of your price range? Study up on similar artists or at least be open to exploring their contemporaries. “Even if that artist isn’t in their budget, we can find something that’s of that talent and of that same feeling in their budget.”
Get to know the local artist community
Ann Connelly represents several Baton Rouge and Louisiana artists, and if you frequent exhibit openings and museum shows around town, you are probably familiar with the quality of their work.
Norris says you don’t need a background in art to have a good eye. “It has nothing to do with education level. … It’s important to be integrated in the arts community as a young collector. The more you look, the more you know, and you’ll start to develop your own opinion about the kind of art you like.” annconnelly.com
Now, about that price
We all get a little shocked when we see the price tag on a certain piece of art. (It costs how much?!) But Chelsea Norris of Ann Connelly Fine Art explains that it takes years of work for artists to reach a level of quality and style that make collectors want to cough up the big bucks. Norris uses a story of New Orleans artist Kevin Gillentine as an example:
“He has an open studio on Magazine Street, so he gets a lot of foot traffic—tourists who aren’t necessarily familiar with his work. Someone came in and said, ‘How long did it take you to paint that painting?’ And he said, ‘My entire life.’ That was such a beautiful representation … even though that painting took however many hours it took, it’s his entire experience and that lifetime of dedication that leads you to be able to produce that painting.”
This article was originally published in the July 2018 issue of 225 Magazine.
